It has been quite an exciting (and busy) night for Thrive owners and hackers. The community managed to root the device, enable Superuser Permissions, and flash ClockworkMod Recovery. Thus far only a handful of people have taken the plunge, so issues could still arise, but preliminary results are looking good. In their own words:

Mine is the second fully working Thrive with Superuser access, Dalepl was first, and austeregrim bricked his to get shell root so we could get the system dump.

While not entirely unexpected, Verizon and Samsung have pulled a bit of a ninja act with the LTE Tab 10.1. We haven't heard a word about it lately, yet an official announcement has just landed in our inbox announcing it will go on sale in two days. The ubertablet will run from $530 for the 16GB model to $630 for the 32GB model, a $30 premium over the WiFi version. As an added bonus, Tab 10.1 purchasers will get a free $25 credit for the Samsung Media Hub.

Lenovo finally made its Honeycomb-sporting IdeaPad K1 an official commodity - and it's basically just another fish in a sea of Android 3.1 tablets. It's filled with the nearly-identical hardware guts of the top Android tablets on the market today:

10.1 1280x800 display

1GHz Tegra 2 chipset

1GB RAM

16/32GB on-board storage; SD Card slot

MicroHDMI

WiFi

Optional 3G (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint)

5MP rear camera; 2MP front

Android 3.1

Of course, Lenovo has made a few changes to add its own custom touch to the device, like the Lenovo Launcher: a five-pane launchpad dead-smack in the middle of the screen that allows quick access to a user-customizable set of shortcuts.

Tablets are rapidly changing the way we approach technology. They give a sense of immediacy and tactile connection that desktops and notebooks can't touch; however, I will be the first to admit that the hype seemed stupid to me. Several coworkers purchased the original iPad on the day it launched and were eager to show them off. "But what can you do with it?" was my question, and there wasn't a good answer.

Update: If you're not into the idea of dropping $379 on this, then you can per-order it from Costco for $50 less ($329). Similarly, Amazon has the pre-order priced at $350, which is still a bit cheaper than ordering direct from Vizio.

If you've been counting down the days until Vizio releases its 8-inch Android-powered tablet, then you can breath a sigh of relief, as pre-orders are now live. The tablet itself is $379, but you can drop $20 extra and get a 16GB SD card and folio style case to go along with it.

Do you have Comcast XFINITY cable? If not, this app may have you considering a switch of providers. The Comcast XFINITY TV app has been around for a while, but a lack of Gingerbread and Honeycomb compatibility has left many users frustrated - and drooling. Why? Because this app is awesome. Take a look at these Honeycomb screenshots taken from a XOOM:

Sorry to take up a big piece of your screen real estate, but those images need to be seen full-size to really appreciate the layout.

It seems Best Buy just can't keep its stuff in the stockroom. Contrary to the earlier July 10th tip, we've gotten multiple confirmations that Best Buy stores have already started selling the Toshiba Thrive tablet - you can walk into your local store and pick one up right now.

We've personally confirmed that several stores have the Thrive (16 and 32GB versions only, unfortunately) in stock, but you should call ahead to your local store - just in case.

If you're the business-minded-Android-tablet-toting type, then grab your beloved Honeycomb device and fire up the Android Market, as a tablet-friendly version of the Bloomberg app is now live. With this app you can grab the latest news, market data, and portfolio information, as well as charts and graphs, so you can stay on top of the latest business trends.

Although the Market listing claims that this app will work on Android 2.1+, that doesn't seem to be the case, as I couldn't install it on my phone at all - only my Galaxy Tab 10.1.